Korean churches are developing plans for a “peace train” that would travel from Berlin through Moscow and Beijing to Busan, South Korea in time for the World Council of Churches’ (WCC) global assembly in October 2013.

The plan is to draw attention to the need for peace and reunification in the Korean peninsula, the churches said, and North Korea also would be on the route of the train, which would carry church and civil society representatives.

“Peace Together 2013, a committee of the National Council of Churches of Korea [NCCK], is working with the governments on the plan,” said Chae Hye-won, Director of the Committee of Reconciliation and Reunification of the NCCK.

A team of ten South Korean Christian leaders will begin a short version of the proposed 16-day trip on 28 May when they travel from Geneva to Beijing.

NCCK is also in early phases of discussion about how to work with the governments of North and South Korea to prepare a peace treaty to be signed in 2013 that marks the 60th anniversary of the ceasefire treaty that ended the Korean War.